Vad händer efter Abbas?

Envisa rykten gör gällande att Mahmoud Abbas som nästa vecka fyller 83 år är allvarligt sjuk.Det gör att spekulationerna om vem som kan tänkas bli hans efterträdare är i full gång. Det finns ingen självklar efterträdare och det är mycket möjligt att maktkampen kommer att bli blodig. Trots att Mahmoud Abbas inte lyckats åstadkomma mycket har han ändå kunnat hålla ihop PLO och Fatah samt palestinska myndigheten på västbanken. Om dessa organisationer splittras efter Abbas tid vid makten återstår att se.
Abbas är inte populär bland befolkningen. Enligt en nyligen utförd  opinionsundersökning vill 68 % att han skall avgå.
Abbas valdes 2005 till president för den palestinska myndigheten. Mandatperioden var 5 år men han sitter fortfarande kvar på posten.

Abbas health scares spark succession talk (TOI)
... A number of top officials in Abbas’s Fatah movement head the list of potential successors.

Jibril Rajoub, a former security chief, and Mahmoud al-Aloul, a veteran Fatah leader, are both members of the party’s decision-making Central Committee.

Abbas’s current security chief, Majed Faraj, is another strong contender, with good behind-the-scenes working relations with both Israel and the US.

Marwan Barghouti, a former Palestinian uprising leader serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prison for ordering attacks in which five Israeli civilians were murdered, tops public opinion polls. But his incarceration would pose a strong obstacle to him taking office.

Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled rival of Abbas who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, also enjoys some support, but the local leadership opposes him.

For now, Abbas refuses to designate a successor. That could set the stage for bitter and potentially violent infighting down the road.

Whoever ultimately emerges as the next Palestinian leader will have little to inherit, analysts say.

Ghassan Khatib, a former cabinet minister, said that for all of his shortcomings, Abbas served as a unifying figure and will be hard to replace.

“The Palestinian Authority is eroding and dying,” said Khatib. “There is no election, no changes, and the gap with the people is getting wider and wider.”